10 most beautiful lost cities

Taxila was captured by Darius and later surrendered to Alexander the Great

, aka Takshashila, is a rediscovered ancient city in northern Pakistan. The ruins are situated near modern Taxila in the Punjab region of Pakistan roughly 35 km (22 miles) NW of Rawalpindi.

The ancient city was captured by the Persian king, Darius the Great in 518 BC and later surrendered to Alexander the Great. It would go through a period of rule by various other conquerors before becoming an important Buddhist site.

It is thought to have been founded around 1000 BC; it would become an important city in the region owing to its position on East-West trade routes.

It would later undergo a period of decline until it was finally destroyed by the Huns in the 5th century AD. The city was rediscovered by Alexander Cunningham in the mid-19th century.

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1 La Ciudad Blanca: The City Of The Monkey God

Photo credit: Dave Yoder, National Geographic

In his quest for gold, Hernan Cortes heard rumors that there was a city of great wealth hiding in the jungles of Honduras. It was called the White City by some and the City of the Monkey God by others, and it was promised to hold an incredible fortune.

Cortes never found it—but the legend lived on. Charles Lindbergh claimed he saw it flying over the country, and others spread rumors that they’d found it but, for whatever reason, couldn’t say where it was, and the city remained nothing more than a legend.

Archaeologists may have actually found it. A group followed the path described by one of the crazier people who claimed to have found the place, and to their surprise, they actually found a city where he said it would be. They found a pyramid in a rain forest, built by a culture that had vanished 1,000 years ago. Inside, there were caches of stone sculptures and impressive architecture that, by the standards of their neighbors, would have been considered signs of incredible wealth and power.

Some people doubt whether this is really the city Cortes wrote about, but if nothing else, it’s evidence of a lost civilization of people who lived their entire lives out in the jungle, separated from life, and whose very existence had been all but forgotten until now.

Read more about real legends on 10 Historical Legends That Are Probably True and 10 Mythical Things that Actually Existed.

fact checked by
Jamie Frater

Mark Oliver

Mark Oliver is a regular contributor to Listverse. His writing also appears on a number of other sites, including The Onion’s StarWipe and Cracked.com. His website is regularly updated with everything he writes.

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Order of events

The player can gain access to Lost City by using the key obtained in Frostbite Caves — Day 30.

After beating Day 15, the player finds a map which leads to one of the lost temples. The player survives waves of Porter Gargantuars on Day 16.

On Day 32, Dr. Zomboss tells the player to not usurp his discovery of Lost City, and he and his zombies already report their findings to the Eminent Journal Of Missing and Mislaid. After defeating Zombot Aerostatic Gondola, Crazy Dave complains that after all those discoveries he hasn’t found his taco yet, while Penny comforted him and ensured that the search will continue.

31. Skara Brae[SEE MAP]

flickr/chatirygirl

Located on the main island of Orkney, Skara Brae is one of the best preserved Stone Age villages in Europe. It was covered for hundreds of years by a sand dune until a great storm exposed the site in 1850. The stone walls are relatively well preserved because the dwellings were filled by sand almost immediately after the site was abandoned. Because there were no trees on the island, furniture had to be made of stone and thus also survived. Skara Brae was occupied from roughly 3180 BC–2500 BC. After the climate changed, becoming much colder and wetter, the settlement was abandoned by its inhabitants.

Hvalsey was a Viking settlement on Greenland

, aka ‘Whale Island’, is a long-lost Viking settlement located near Qaqortoq, Greenland. It is, to date, the largest and best-preserved example of Norse ruins in what is known as the Eastern Settlement.

It was settled around 1000 AD by Norse farmers who were thought to have arrived from Iceland. The site was probably home to about 4,000 people during its height. 

The Western Settlement would be abandoned in the 14th century, with Eastern Settlement lasting a little longer before also being abandoned. 

Records exist of a wedding being held in the settlement’s church in 1408. This was the last record of any habitation of the area.

The site was rediscovered in 1721 by a Danish missionary.

Palmyra was once a very wealthy merchant city

or «City of Palm Trees» used to be an influential and wealthy city located in present-day Syria. Some archaeological finds suggest it may have Neolithic origins, but it was first mentioned in the 2nd century BC.

It was eventually conquered by various external powers, including the Romans in the 1st century AD.

The Palmyrenes were renowned and successful merchants who established colonies all along the silk road. After a brief rebellion, the city was leveled by Emperor Aurelian and partially rebuilt by Diocletian. 

It was later captured by Muslim Arab invaders in 634 AD and declined under Ottoman Rule to the point of virtual abandonment. The historic city was later rediscovered as an archaeological site by European travelers in the 17th century.

4. Petra[SEE MAP]

Petra, the fabled “rose red city, half as old as time”, was the ancient capital of the Nabataean kingdom. A vast, unique city, carved into the side of the Wadi Musa Canyon in southern Jordan centuries ago by the Nabataeans, who turned it into an important junction for the silk and spice routes that linked China, India and southern Arabia with Egypt, Greece and Rome. After several earthquakes crippled the vital water management system the city was almost completely abandoned in the 6th century. After the Crusades, Petra was forgotten in the Western world until the lost city was rediscovered by the Swiss traveler Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1812.

2 La Ciudad Perdida: The Lost Colombian City

Around 1,300 years ago, an ancient people called the Tairona built an incredible city along the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountainsides. It was put up at the top of the hills by the command of their god, who wanted them to live close to the stars.

People lived there for 700 to 800 years—until the Spanish conquistadors arrived. The Tairona never met them, but the diseases the Spaniards brought with them spread to the Tairona and wiped them out. The last people in the city died, it was left barren, and an entire civilization was forgotten for hundreds of years.

The city wasn’t discovered until the 1970s, when a group of bandits making their way through the jungle stumbled upon it by chance. By pure luck, they found an ancient, overgrown city full of gold jewelry and jade figures.

They pocketed what they could find and sold it on the black market, where they came to the attention of archaeologists. Soon, the city known only as “The Lost City” was found, after nearly 500 years hidden in the jungle.

Calakmul’s great rival Tikal

was one of the largest Mayan cities between 200 and 900 AD, with a population of around 100,000 — 200,000 inhabitants. It is thought to have been called Yax Mutal and can be found in the rainforests of Guatemala.

It was once the capital of a state that would become one of the most powerful kingdoms in Mayan civilization. Some finds suggest the city was occupied as early as the 4th century BC, but it reached its full power during Europe’s middle ages.

The city became a victim of its own success when its demand for timber led to deforestation, erosion, and subsequent famine. Between 830 AD and 950 AD, its population plummeted and Tikal was eventually deserted. 

Tikal was reclaimed by the Guatemalan rainforest until the ruins were uncovered by European gum snappers in the mid-1800s. 

16. Leptis Magna[SEE MAP]

Leptis Magna or Lepcis Magna was a prominent city of the Roman Empire, located in present-day Libya. Its natural harbor facilitated the city’s growth as a major Mediterranean and Saharan trade centre, and it also became a market for agricultural production in the fertile coastland region. The Roman emperor Septimius Severus (193–211), who was born at Leptis, became a great patron of the city. Under his direction an ambitious building program was initiated. Over the following centuries, however, Leptis began to decline because of the increasing difficulties of the Roman Empire. After the Arab conquest of 642, the lost city fell into ruin and was buried by sand for centuries.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+2 Cards+2 ActionsWhen you gain this, each other player draws a card.	Adventures 1st Edition	April 2015
		+2 Cards+2 ActionsWhen you gain this, each other player draws a card.	Adventures 2nd Edition	August 2017

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Dutch	Verloren stad
Finnish	Kadonnut kaupunki
French	Cité perdue
German	Verlorene Stadt			+2 Karten+2 AktionenWenn du diese Karte nimmst, zieht jeder Mitspieler eine Karte.	(2015)
German	Verlorene Stadt			+2 Karten+2 AktionenWenn du diese Karte nimmst, ziehen alle Mitspieler eine Karte.	(Nachdruck 2021)
Japanese	失われた都市(pron. ushinawareta toshi)			+2 カードを引く+2 アクションこれを獲得するとき、他のプレイヤーは全員、1枚カードを引く。
Russian	Затерянный Город (pron. zatyeryanny gorod)

В Lost in the City черный экран, белый экран, цветной экран. Решение

Проблемы с экранами разных цветов можно условно разделить на 2 категории.

Во-первых, они часто связаны с использованием сразу двух видеокарт. Например, если ваша материнская плата имеет встроенную видеокарту, но играете вы на дискретной, то Lost in the City может в первый раз запускаться на встроенной, при этом самой игры вы не увидите, ведь монитор подключен к дискретной видеокарте.

Во-вторых, цветные экраны бывают при проблемах с выводом изображения на экран. Это может происходить по разным причинам. Например, Lost in the City не может наладить работу через устаревший драйвер или не поддерживает видеокарту. Также черный/белый экран может выводиться при работе на разрешениях, которые не поддерживаются игрой.

В Lost in the City не работает управление. Lost in the City не видит мышь, клавиатуру или геймпад. Решение

Как играть, если невозможно управлять процессом? Проблемы поддержки специфических устройств тут неуместны, ведь речь идет о привычных девайсах — клавиатуре, мыши и контроллере.

Таким образом, ошибки в самой игре практически исключены, почти всегда проблема на стороне пользователя. Решить ее можно по-разному, но, так или иначе, придется обращаться к драйверу. Обычно при подключении нового устройства операционная система сразу же пытается задействовать один из стандартных драйверов, но некоторые модели клавиатур, мышей и геймпадов несовместимы с ними.

Таким образом, нужно узнать точную модель устройства и постараться найти именно ее драйвер. Часто с устройствами от известных геймерских брендов идут собственные комплекты ПО, так как стандартный драйвер Windows банально не может обеспечить правильную работу всех функций того или иного устройства.

Если искать драйверы для всех устройств по отдельности не хочется, то можно воспользоваться программой Driver Updater. Она предназначена для автоматического поиска драйверов, так что нужно будет только дождаться результатов сканирования и загрузить нужные драйвера в интерфейсе программы.

Нередко тормоза в Lost in the City могут быть вызваны вирусами. В таком случае нет разницы, насколько мощная видеокарта стоит в системном блоке. Проверить компьютер и отчистить его от вирусов и другого нежелательного ПО можно с помощью специальных программ. Например NOD32. Антивирус зарекомендовал себя с наилучшей стороны и получили одобрение миллионов пользователей по всему миру.

ZoneAlarm подходит как для личного использования, так и для малого бизнеса, способен защитить компьютер с операционной системой Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista и Windows XP от любых атак: фишинговых, вирусов, вредоносных программ, шпионских программ и других кибер угроз. Новым пользователям предоставляется 30-дневный бесплатный период.

Nod32 — анитивирус от компании ESET, которая была удостоена многих наград за вклад в развитие безопасности. На сайте разработчика доступны версии анивирусных программ как для ПК, так и для мобильных устройств, предоставляется 30-дневная пробная версия. Есть специальные условия для бизнеса.

Lost in the City не устанавливается. Прекращена установка. Решение

Перед тем, как начать установку Lost in the City, нужно еще раз обязательно проверить, какой объем она занимает на диске. Если же проблема с наличием свободного места на диске исключена, то следует провести диагностику диска. Возможно, в нем уже накопилось много «битых» секторов, и он банально неисправен?

В Windows есть стандартные средства проверки состояния HDD- и SSD-накопителей, но лучше всего воспользоваться специализированными программами.

Но нельзя также исключать и вероятность того, что из-за обрыва соединения загрузка прошла неудачно, такое тоже бывает. А если устанавливаете Lost in the City с диска, то стоит поглядеть, нет ли на носителе царапин и чужеродных веществ!

Krishna’s Sacred City of Dvārakā is another famous lost city

is a recently rediscovered Hindu, Jainist, and Buddhist sacred city. It forms one of the so-called Sapta Puri, or seven sacred cities, of Hinduism as was the legendary home of the God Krishna.

According to legend, the city was destroyed during a huge battle between Krishna and King Salva. The city was annihilated by blasts of energy never to be seen again.

Many millennia later, during the 1980s, Indian scientists found the ruins of a city near to where legend described it to be. It is now thought that the city could have been built around 9,000 years ago.

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If true this would make it one of the oldest cities on Earth. 

9 Dvaraka: The Home Of Krishna

Photo credit: Go UNESCO

To a Hindu, Dvaraka (sometimes spelled Dwarka) is as sacred as a city can be. It is the ancient home of Krishna, the supreme personality of the God Head, who lived on the Earth 5,000 years ago.

Dvaraka was built by the architect of the gods under Krishna’s own orders, who demanded a city made of crystal, silver, and emeralds. He also demanded that 16,108 palaces be made for his 16,108 queens. In the end, though, the city was destroyed in a massive battle between Krishna and King Salva, who annihilated it with blasts of energy.

It all sounds like the last thing you’d expect to have any truth in it—but when archaeologists started exploring the sea where Dvaraka was supposed to have been, they actually found the ruins of a city that fit the description. It didn’t have 16,108 silver palaces, but it was a major ancient city with the same layout, and the rest fit as just a little bit of embellishment.

There’s reason to believe the real Dvaraka might have first been built 9,000 years ago, making it one of the oldest cities on Earth. At its peak, it was one of the busiest seaports in the world. Then, in the second millennium BC, it collapsed into the water, just like in the legend.

Lost in the City зависает. Картинка застывает. Решение

Ситуация примерно такая же, как и с вылетами: многие зависания напрямую связаны с самой игрой, а вернее с ошибкой разработчика при ее создании. Впрочем, нередко застывшая картинка может стать отправной точкой для расследования плачевного состояния видеокарты или процессора.

Так что если картинка в Lost in the City застывает, то воспользуйтесь программами для вывода статистики по загрузке комплектующих. Быть может, ваша видеокарта уже давно исчерпала свой рабочий ресурс или процессор греется до опасных температур?

Проверить загрузку и температуры для видеокарты и процессоров проще всего в программе MSI Afterburner. При желании можно даже выводить эти и многие другие параметры поверх картинки Lost in the City.

Какие температуры опасны? Процессоры и видеокарты имеют разные рабочие температуры. У видеокарт они обычно составляют 60-80 градусов по Цельсию. У процессоров немного ниже — 40-70 градусов. Если температура процессора выше, то следует проверить состояние термопасты. Возможно, она уже высохла и требует замены.

Если греется видеокарта, то стоит воспользоваться драйвером или официальной утилитой от производителя. Нужно увеличить количество оборотов кулеров и проверить, снизится ли рабочая температура.

34. Carthage[SEE MAP]

flickr/mutbka

Located in present-day Tunisia, Carthage was founded by Phoenician colonists and became a major power in the Mediterranean. The resulting rivalry with Syracuse and Rome was accompanied by several wars with respective invasions of each other’s homeland, most notable the invasion of Italy by Hannibal. The city was destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC. The Romans went from house to house, capturing, raping and enslaving the people before setting Carthage ablaze. However, the Romans re-founded Carthage, which became one of the Empire’s largest and most important city. It remained an important city until it was destroyed a second time in 698 AD during the Muslim conquest.

В Lost in the City нет звука. Ничего не слышно. Решение

Lost in the City работает, но почему-то не звучит — это еще одна проблема, с которой сталкиваются геймеры. Конечно, можно играть и так, но все-таки лучше разобраться, в чем дело.

Сначала нужно определить масштаб проблемы. Где именно нет звука — только в игре или вообще на компьютере? Если только в игре, то, возможно, это обусловлено тем, что звуковая карта очень старая и не поддерживает DirectX.

Если же звука нет вообще, то дело однозначно в настройке компьютера. Возможно, неправильно установлены драйвера звуковой карты, а может быть звука нет из-за какой-то специфической ошибки нашей любимой ОС Windows.

5 Leptis Magna: The Roman City Buried In Sand

A massive Roman city in Libya that was once a major trading hub for the empire was buried in a sandstorm.

The city is called Leptis Magna, and it was the place where the Roman emperor Septimus Severus was born. He turned it into a gigantic city and one of the most important parts of his empire, but when Rome started to fall, Leptis Magna fell with it. It was pillaged by raiders, destroyed by Arab invaders, left in ruins, and completely forgotten until it was buried under the drifting sands.

Leptis Magna spent about 1,200 years buried under sand dunes until 19th-century archaeologists found it. Buried under the sand, the city was almost perfectly preserved. They didn’t just find a few broken pots there; they got to unearth and walk through a whole ancient Roman city.

Leptis Magna still has an amphitheater, baths, a basilica, and a circus, all preserved so incredibly by the sand that they look almost exactly how they would have when the city was in its prime. It’s like stepping into a time machine. It’s a lost, forgotten city—and because it was forgotten, it never had to change.

14. Vijayanagara[SEE MAP]

flickr/pcsjith

Vijaynagar was once one the largest cities in the world with 500,000 inhabitants. The Indian city flourished between the 14th century and 16th century, during the height of the power of the Vijayanagar empire. During this time, the empire was often in conflict with the Muslim kingdoms. In 1565, the empire’s armies suffered a massive and catastrophic defeat and Vijayanagara was taken. The victorious Muslim armies then proceeded to raze, depopulate, and destroy the city and its Hindu temples over a period of several months. Despite the empire continuing to exist thereafter during a slow decline, the original capital was not reoccupied or rebuilt. It has not been occupied since.

Lost in the City лагает. Большая задержка при игре. Решение

Многие путают «тормоза» с «лагами», но эти проблемы имеют совершенно разные причины. Lost in the City тормозит, когда снижается частота кадров, с которой картинка выводится на монитор, и лагает, когда задержка при обращении к серверу или любому другому хосту слишком высокая.

Именно поэтому «лаги» могут быть только в сетевых играх. Причины разные: плохой сетевой код, физическая удаленность от серверов, загруженность сети, неправильно настроенный роутер, низкая скорость интернет-соединения.

Впрочем, последнее бывает реже всего. В онлайн-играх общение клиента и сервера происходит путем обмена относительно короткими сообщениями, поэтому даже 10 Мб в секунду должно хватить за глаза.

Gordium: King Midas’ great capital

, or Górdion (pronounced Gor-di-yon) in Turkish, was the capital city of the ancient Phrygian Empire. Located in Asia Minor, it is roughly 47 miles (75 km) SW of Ankara. 

The city lies on what was once the ancient road between Lydia and Assyria that crossed the Sangarius River. Gordium’s most famous ruler was the quasi-legendary King Midas.

Gordium was sacked by the Cimmerians and subsequently abandoned in around 800 BCE but was rebuilt by the Persians.

Alexander the Great is said to have visited the city and solved the puzzle of the Gordian Knot, which said that whoever could loosen the knot would rule Asia — Alexander is said to have solved this problem by simply cutting the knot.

The forgotten city was rediscovered and excavated in 1900 by Gustav and Alfred Korte, and later by the Pennsylvanian Museum, between 1950 and 1973.

Lost in the City, скачанная с торрента не работает. Решение

Такие версии игр использовать не просто неудобно, а даже опасно, ведь очень часто в них изменены многие файлы. Например, для обхода защиты пираты модифицируют EXE-файл. При этом никто не знает, что они еще с ним делают. Быть может, они встраивают само-исполняющееся программное обеспечение. Например, майнер, который при первом запуске игры встроится в систему и будет использовать ее ресурсы для обеспечения благосостояния хакеров. Или вирус, дающий доступ к компьютеру третьим лицам. Тут никаких гарантий нет и быть не может.

К тому же использование пиратских версий — это, по мнению нашего издания, воровство. Разработчики потратили много времени на создание игры, вкладывали свои собственные средства в надежде на то, что их детище окупится. А каждый труд должен быть оплачен.

Поэтому при возникновении каких-либо проблем с играми, скачанными с торрентов или же взломанных с помощью тех или иных средств, следует сразу же удалить «пиратку», почистить компьютер при помощи антивируса и приобрести лицензионную копию игры. Это не только убережет от сомнительного ПО, но и позволит скачивать обновления для игры и получать официальную поддержку от ее создателей.

3. Tikal[SEE MAP]

Between ca. 200 to 900 AD, Tikal was the largest Mayan city with an estimated population between 100,000 and 200,000 inhabitants. As Tikal reached peak population, the area around the city suffered deforestation and erosion followed by a rapid decline in population levels. Tikal lost the majority of its population during the period from 830 to 950 and central authority seems to have collapsed rapidly. After 950, Tikal was all but deserted, although a small population may have survived in huts among the ruins. Even these people abandoned the city in the 10th or 11th centuries and the Guatemalan rainforest claimed the ruins for the next thousand years.

30. Memphis[SEE MAP]

flickr/IDS.photos

Memphis, founded around 3,100 BC, is the legendary city of Menes, the King who united Upper and Lower Egypt. Early on, Memphis was more likely a fortress from which Menes controlled the land and water routes between Upper Egypt and the Delta. By the Third Dynasty, Saqqara had become a sizable city. It fell successively to Nubia, Assyria, Persia, and Macedonia under Alexander the Great. Its importance as a religious centre was undermined by the rise of Christianity and then of Islam. It was abandoned after the Muslim conquest of Egypt in 640 AD. Its ruins include the great temple of Ptah, royal palaces, and a colossal statue of Rameses II. Nearby are the pyramids of Saqqara.

7 Xanadu: The Palace Of Kublai Khan

Photo credit: Zhenglan Qi Administration of Cultural Heritage of the site of Xanadu City

Marco Polo came back from China with some incredible descriptions of Kublai Khan’s empire. The most incredible of all, though, was Xanadu, the palace of the great khan.

Xanadu, Marco Polo said, was a marble palace surrounded by a massive, 26-kilometer-wide (16 mi) park filled with fountains, rivers, and wild animals. There, the khan kept 10,000 pure white horses in a golden palace guarded by dragons. It was, in short, a paradise unlike any on Earth.

The palace was destroyed by the Ming army in 1369, long before most Europeans got the chance to see it. As the centuries passed by, it slipped into legend. It was a place poets wrote about but was little more than the stuff of imagination.

Since then, though, the site of Kublai Khan’s palace has been uncovered, and we’ve found that Marco Polo wasn’t exaggerating. The khan’s home was twice as big as the White House, surrounded by a massive park that seems to have once held a wild menagerie of animals from around the world.

There are ramps for horses in every part of it, and it even has the dragons Marco Polo described. They’re statues sitting atop of pillars that have been painted yellow—but they’re posed exactly as he said they were.

2. Angkor[SEE MAP]

Angkor is a vast temple city in Cambodia featuring the magnificent remains of several capitals of the Khmer Empire, from the 9th to the 15th century AD. These include the famous Angkor Wat temple, the world’s largest single religious monument, and the Bayon temple (at Angkor Thom) with its multitude of massive stone faces. During its long history Angkor went through many changes in religion converting between Hinduism to Buddhism several times. The end of the Angkorian period is generally set as 1431, the year Angkor was sacked and looted by Ayutthaya invaders, though the civilization already had been in decline. Nearly all of Angkor was abandoned, except for Angkor Wat, which remained a Buddhist shrine.

Timgad was once a thriving Roman colony

, or Colonia Marciana Ulpia Traiana Thamugadi to the Romans, was once a thriving Roman colony in Algeria. It was founded by Emperor Trajan sometime around 100 AD.

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The once-lost city is located in the Aures Mountains of the region and was named in honor of Trajan’s mother Marcia. The city was abandoned after being sacked by the Vandals in the 5th century and then the Berbers in the 7th century.

It was later buried by the sands of the Sahara until its rediscovery and excavation.

Today, it is noted for being a great example of the Roman grid system town planning. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982.

Lost in the City выдает ошибку об отсутствии DLL-файла. Решение

Как правило, проблемы, связанные с отсутствием DLL-библиотек, возникают при запуске Lost in the City, однако иногда игра может обращаться к определенным DLL в процессе и, не найдя их, вылетать самым наглым образом.

Чтобы исправить эту ошибку, нужно найти необходимую библиотеку DLL и установить ее в систему. Проще всего сделать это с помощью программы DLL-fixer, которая сканирует систему и помогает быстро найти недостающие библиотеки.

Если ваша проблема оказалась более специфической или же способ, изложенный в данной статье, не помог, то вы можете спросить у других пользователей в нашей рубрике «Вопросы и ответы». Они оперативно помогут вам!

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